For Profit Prisons

[SciFi Chick]

States get fined if they don't have enough people in their prison population.

This country is fucked.

[FZR1KG]

Privatised prisons are imho immoral.
When your profit is tied to the prison population in a country where the dollar is God and profit is the ultimate aim I'm not sure what people expected to happen.
I can't believe that anyone in power with half a brain didn't see this coming.
I'm going to go with, yes they knew this was going to happen, yes they got bribes in the form of lobbying (another name for legally bribing politicians here in the USA). Hell I remember when this was first introduced. It made headlines in Oz. Even back then people were correctly predicting the inevitable outcome. That was in a country 8000miles away.

When I read shit like this and get told, really, the system works, I just give up.
It's like watching a badly written script made into a movie with bad actors and totally predictable outcomes yet people are surprised and in many cases still defend the way things are (not just the legal system).

[The Supreme Canuck]

For-profit prisons are bullshit. You end up with things like this when you have a for-profit justice system.

I hate to say it guys, but the United States is an absolutely ridiculous country. Some of the things you do are entirely incomprehensible to your peer nations. Utterly nuts.

[Swift]

I hate to say it guys, but the United States is an absolutely ridiculous country. Some of the things you do are entirely incomprehensible to your peer nations. Utterly nuts.

They are incomprehensible to me too, so I'm not going to try to 'splain it. But heck, a lot of human actions are incomprehensible to me; I sometimes wonder if I'm a different species.

[SciFiFisher]

This is the end result when people insist that government functions must be privatized because government is too in-efficient to perform these tasks in a cost effective manner.

[geonuc]

Yeah, I just shake my head sometimes. And I imagine a conversation with a fiscal conservative who might support privatized prisons and trying to convince that person that incentivizing incarceration is a bad thing. That conservative person might disagree, suggesting that not enough people are being locked up and whatever we can do to get those people off the streets is good. Those people being minorities, of course.

Speaking as a middle-class white male, this is a great country. Fuck all the minorities and poor people. And women.

[FZR1KG]

*geonuc snuck in*

I've never understood the inefficient government argument as it's presented by those who believe it.
If the government is inefficient and corporations are way better, why don't we just privatize the armed forces, and have a CEO in charge of the government instead of a president, let the board of directors vote in the CEO rather than public elections. Let the profits/shareholders decide who stays as CEO. Share holders are people too you know. That should make things work really smoothly shouldn't it?

But they don't want that, they don't trust corporations to run the government.
*whisper* Ooops...don't take a close look because, its too fucking late.

Your government is controlled by the corporations and the wealthy.
What the hell do you think lobbying is?
It's the fee paid to have legislation written for your interests and passed the way you want it, or legislation written the way you want it or not passed when it's needed. IOW, it makes legislation work in a corporations favor by allowing it to do things that really shouldn't be done (e.g. fracking, polluting etc), forcing consumers to buy your product (ethanol in fuel anyone?), or getting exemptions from prosecution (welcome to the Gun manufacturers world in the USA where they have no liability for faulty products, even if they kill people due to design/manufacturing faults).

What is legislation?
Well, here's where most people's denial kicks in, it's another name for statutory law. That's right, law.
You have the money, you control the law. It's that simple.

The next argument is usually along the lines of well, it doesn't affect all the laws, like criminal laws...really?
By that logic, a bought police officer is not really corrupt...
Corruption starts small, over time it gets bigger and bigger.
Your government has had lobbying for a long time. Enough to have it completely corrupt any part of the government special interest groups (corporations) need or want.

This is a perfect example.

[FZR1KG]

Yeah, I just shake my head sometimes. And I imagine a conversation with a fiscal conservative who might support privatized prisons and trying to convince that person that incentivizing incarceration is a bad thing. That conservative person might disagree, suggesting that not enough people are being locked up and whatever we can do to get those people off the streets is good. Those people being minorities, of course.

Speaking as a middle-class white male, this is a great country. Fuck all the minorities and poor people. And women.

Couldn't agree with you more...I think that means the Universe is about to implode LOL

I know a guy who openly states that things went bad because the USA let women vote.
Pretty sure you can all guess, he's not a democrat.

[Swift]

I've never understood the inefficient government argument as it's presented by those who believe it.

I am of the opinion that anyone who really believes that corporations are more efficient than governments has never worked for a corporation (such as most politicians). The corporations that I've either worked for or somehow been involved with (such as suppliers or customers) have ranged from slightly efficient to completely fucked up. I think the only reason any of them do OK is that their competitors are even worse. The moronic crap I put up with on a daily basis is mind boggling.